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Sunday, February 27, 2011

"The Trip" (Film produced for The New Paper FiRST Film Festival 2011)

"Things that happen in the middle of a young man's many journeys have always been unknown... uptil now..."

Introducing a secret film project (although it ain't a secret no more) that both Jon and I have been working on for the past ten, thousand minutes. My first time being the main character in a short film and editing both the video and sound for a film. Planning and filming for the first few (hundred) scenes started way before February, with the rest just recently finished and compiled into one production, written and directed by yours truly and co-directed by Jonathan Chen. This film's also a tribute to the things around me that have changed my life. Read on for the progress log after the film.

Like I said, I do kick butt, I'm not just a Reviewer...

Cast
Hanyi Yeow/SasukeKenzan as Himself
Arthur Loi/KaizerAxl as The Crew Leader
Derek Ang as The Crew 1st Fighter
Daniel Voon as The Crew 2nd Fighter

*Note that sometime during the upload to YouTube, the audio from some parts was delayed by 1-2 seconds, and I couldn't do anything about it. The originals had no problem with the audio whatsoever.

The Making -

At the end of January, I finished the "rough sketch" for the film sequence using my Nintendo DSi as a sketchbook and showed it to Jon, to see how the roughed out sketch would work out for him. I then started filming the 'preparation scene' over one night, falling asleep, and then working on it the next day, with Jon as the advisor (although 'critic' was the first position that I got for him).

On one weekday, because I was too stubborn to sleep early, I started the first filming for the first scene as well, which was in my bedroom. At first I wanted the screen for Beat Hazard to be playing, but the shots that came out were a lil' darker than expected, also there could have been an issue with the company, so I scratched that. On one test run on the same day, and also because I was dead tired, I actually fell asleep on set. That set the next filming to the next day.

For the newer version, I used my YouTube Channel as the screen on my main display, brightening things up a notch. The shots went well and I got what I wanted. Note that the phrase 'Saa, Omae no Tsumi wo Kazoero' at the end of my phone's FangJoker ringtone (yep that's really my real ringtone) was taken from the Gaia Memories and overlay-ed together with a lil' background tune. The message ringtone however, was replaced, because my original message ringtone was Daburu/Double(W) by Mitsuru Matsuoka AKA Katsumi Daido or Kamen Rider Eternal...

As the painful weeks went by without actors for the henchmen for the final fight scene, I started on the 'security system' that would be featured in the last scene, which I had planned for but never knew which codes and passwords to include, but was able to using simple algorithms, stress on 'simple'. The next time I went over to headquarters, I showed Jon the finished sequence and explained where I got the system version that the security had, his birthday.

Remember, 22nd March 1976, that's 36 punches for this year

Then the goddess of luck shined on the team, twice, once being that the guys at TNP extended the deadline to March 6 and the twice being that I was able to gather enough people for the final few scenes that I wanted.

Lots of camera angles and shots were used and improvised in the final scene and we're able to use every shot that we got, which was awesome! A few came from our dear Kamen Rider/Super Sentai/Tokusatsu movies, one being the dolly shot from Kamen Rider Double(W) Forever: A to Z/The Gaia Memories of Fate.

Editing was the most painful part, no wait, that was the pizza treat, several versions of the final film was spun and I picked the best after every tweak that I could do with it.

Whatever other people say or troll about it, this is my first film and it's the best film that I've worked on and I'm proud to say that this is my work, you won't gain anything out of it even if you troll. That's a message to haters and trolls out there.